by AYCACUN

NO SCREEN ZONE

I have started an experiment over the last two weeks – no screens past 11pm that includes TV, laptop, iPhone, iPad. No social media, just books, meditation, sitting still or doing some home related things. One more addition to that is to leave my phone plugged during the night outside my bedroom to eliminate the crazy magnetic waves hitting my brain all night long.

Why I do that?

Few weeks ago, realized that I was waking up feeling tired almost every single day. Rolling out of my bed, hitting the gym or streets to get a workout before going to work. With post breakfast coffee it felt like the feeling of a typical “not morning person” but afternoon exhaustion in the form of a jet lag mood made me start thinking about it a bit deeper. My coffee consumption doubled up -from one to two cortados- for much needed energy to be able to continue the rest of my afternoon. OKAY two cups of short coffee might not be too much for american standards but it started bothering my stomach so I had to stop it and afternoons got a little tougher. While I was thinking of going to doctor for some tests, my colleague at work ask me the question of whether I was sleeping with my phone in my bedroom or not? Of course the answer was YES since I live almost glued to my phone till I fall asleep. It slowly started making sense of why quality of my sleep was a bit low and why I was waking up in the middle of the night. Also realizing that the sleep I was getting started going down average of 6 hours with less quality.

The thought of changing the behavior started by leaving my phone outside my bedroom and then I did find out the new book of Arianna Huffington “Sleep Revolution”. Right in time while I was looking for the answers around my sleep quality and how technology was effecting my mood and quality of my life.

If you read her first book Thrive – which is one of my favorite books – and her personal wake up call, you will quickly realize that the new book is a a double click around exhaustion and sleep depravation. It is deeply researched, gives you all the context that you need to know on whys and hows. And by having all the right information you then can see how you can actually increase the quality of your life. And the truth you’ll immediately catch will be “sleep is more important then you think.” I’m still not done with it yet, and trying to read it in the best time – before going to bed:) What I love about so far is that, it’s clearly showing the misleading reputation in our cultures where you get extra credit of not having enough sleep. Like sending emails 2am in the morning -clear sign that you are working more than anyone else? – where you get appreciated for that type of behaviour vs this being a sign of ineffeciency in the way you operate. Each page is full of gems. It’s deep with information, interesting and a must have for all of us.

Well this weekend I’m catching up on my Sleep [Revolution]. And I highly recommend you to do the same;) Read and see it with your own eyes!

Oh btw, if you are curious of what has been changed over the last two weeks with that no screen zone experiment – here is what happened:

1- My sleep quality has changed drastically – no waking up in the middle of the night by huffing and puffing. So there is no distraction from start to finish.

2- Falling asleep got easier which also resulted in an increase on my total hours of sleep from 6 hours to at least 7,5hours – if not 8.

3- Waking up with NO alarm clock now, even earlier than usual. All natural waking up with light that makes me feel better since there is no shock to my system.

4- And yes, I’m not feeling tired at all during the day and no need for more coffee. Clearly spring is helping but I feel the difference in my energy levels.

That was the best decision ever and fun experiment! Sooooo I’m not responding any emails or text messages in that no screen zone:) Just Sayin’